Find your own path to conscious wealth | Financial Awakenings

After three decades as a financial planner, working with successful wealth-builders, you’d think I would have a clear idea of the right path for creating wealth.

Instead, what I’ve learned is that there is no such thing. Here are just a few of the paths that aren’t the sure routes to wealth they might seem to be:

1. Education and career choices. Going into a field like law or medicine might seem to guarantee financial success. Not necessarily. I’ve seen many physicians, for example, who have accumulated significant wealth. I’ve seen just as many who live paycheck to paycheck.

2. High earnings. Again, this isn’t the reliable predictor of wealth it would seem to be. True, someone who spends decades in low-wage jobs is unlikely to be able to accumulate much financial security. But a person earning $1 million a year will not necessarily have a larger net worth than someone earning $75,000. I’ve seen people who worked as janitors, nurses, and mechanics become millionaires. I’ve worked with others, earning a hundred times more in careers like sales or entertainment, who reach retirement age with absolutely nothing.

3. Owning your own business. Many hard-working, creative entrepreneurs build successful businesses that provide wealth, not just for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren. Others might see a business or even a series of businesses fail. Still others might work hard all their lives but never achieve more than the equivalent of an average salary in their field.

read the complete article at: Rick Kahler: Find your own path to conscious wealth | Financial Awakenings.